fireworks
by little toy soldiers
Summary: His eyes met hers and he couldn't help but notice a loneliness and sadness that he hadn't noticed before.-preston/cammie. multishots.
1. fireworks

**WARNING: MAJOR GG5 spoilers ahead. Well...not major but trust me, if you haven't read GG5 yet then you most definitely DO NOT want to read this. Seriously. Go away. Now. Don't look back.**

**a/n**: _so I've been considerably dead for the past couple of months (yeah...when is summer coming?) but ok I need take a moment and fangirl over G55...kqoFhjiokwkdnbihjfb PRESTON dofnbdfkgfj CAMMIE djfireksldf ZACH oiefbnfrfi ABBY AND TOWNSEND fdjiefjesdk ALL THE SHIT THAT WENT DOWN odslknxdiejf ok. ok. Seriously, someone needs to PM so we can fangirl together, kay? My friends are lame and don't read the series and my sister quite reading it after book 2. Pfft. _

**fireworks.**

…

It was the fourth of July and Preston Winters felt lonely.

He also had realized that not all countries celebrate the fourth of July. Who knew no one else cared about America's gain of independence?

His father was out on some sort of meeting. Preston didn't bothering asking, or caring, what the meeting was even about. His father was always at meetings, had been since Preston was a baby.

There was a silence that seemed so deafening in what seemed to be an empty house. It wasn't really empty of course. There were security guards and chefs and servants all around the house but it wasn't the same. Not really. Preston wanted actual friends to be with. People his father did not pay to stick around.

"Mr. Preston," Isabelle, the Winters' maid, said. She was standing in the doorway of his room. "Are you alright?"

Preston stared up at the ceiling of his room. Bleak. Like everything else about that place. "Yes, Isabelle. Everything is fine."

Isabelle looked unconvinced. She frowned and put a hand on her hip. "It's your country's independence day, yes?" He only nodded. "Then go out! Do something!

Run. You like to run, don't you?"

Actually, Preston didn't really like running. At all. But he had gotten in the habit of it a month ago when he realized there really was not much else for him to do.

But because Isabelle had that 'I'm giving you no choice' look on her face, Preston got changed into shorts, a t-shirt and sneakers and left the house on his usual route.

It was dark out, already 9 o'clock Rome's time. His bare arms felt cold from the small breeze and he shivered slightly.

After one mile Preston stopped and leaned against a brick wall, out of breath.

He looked up at the ink blue night sky with the bright twinkling stars.

_There should be fireworks_, he thought. Suddenly he found himself wanting fireworks to brighten up the dark sky in bursts of reds and blues.

_Stupid Italy._

Just as he was about to get up and start back up again he caught movement in the corner of his eye. A girl. As she got closer he could see she was a teenage girl.

A familiar teenage girl... "Preston, is that you?"

Isn't that...?

"Cammie?" He breathed in shock.

She looked as the way he remembered her from the last time he saw her. The last time he saw Macey...

She smiled. "Hey I thought that was you."

Preston nodded, still a little stunned. "What are you doing in Rome?'

Cammie bit her lip and looked a little sheepish. "I'm actually lost. You see, my family and I were backpacking in Italy and I kind of...lost them..."

Preston took a second to take her appearance in, thinking that she didn't even have a backpack to begin with. He decided not to question it. "I see," He responded. "Well I can take you back to my place, it's not far. We can sort this whole thing out there."

Cammie smiled brightly and Preston felt himself smile back. She had the kind of smile that was contagious.

As they began their walk back Cammie looked at him. "I'm really glad I ran into you." His eyes met hers and he couldn't help but notice a loneliness and sadness that he hadn't noticed before. She bit her lip. "I just...I didn't want to be alone anymore."

And for the first time in what felt like a long time, Preston felt at home. "Yeah, me either."

He just might have found his fireworks.

…

_I might make this into a series of oneshots of Preston and Cammie's summer (well…until she left). Thoughts? _


	2. gelato

...

"It's hot."

"Jesus, Preston, you've already said that."

"I know but-"

"I know. It's hot."

"It _is _hot."

"Yeah. Got that. I got that about 56 minutes ago."

"I did _not _say that 56 minutes ago…"

"Uh, yes you did. I have an internal clock remember?"

"Cammie-"

Preston Winters sighed and crossed his arms over his chest, pouting. He wore khaki shorts and a plain white t-shirt and he was sweltering. It was at it's hottest in Rome and he felt a slight annoyance that Cammie was making him spend the ridiculously hot day standing in line at a stand that sold tacky looking jewelry.

As if reading his thoughts, Cammie pushed her sunglasses on top of her head and looked at him. "I'm not making you stay here with me. You can go home if you want."

(He felt a split second panic that Cammie was a mind reader. But he figured that was a ridiculous notion. Sort of.)

"No," He sighed dramatically, leaning against a wall. "You clearly just need my presence and I'm willing to die of heat stroke for that." When Cammie rolled her eyes, Preston grinned. "Seriously. The things I do for you, Cam."

Cammie smiled a little bit too.

(It was a smile Preston had grown accustomed to. A smile she gave him on a daily basis that said 'you are such a dork but I'm going to deal with you anyway.')

"Whatever you say, Preston." The couple that had been just speaking with the woman at the booth turned and left, grinning in that 'we're so in love' way that many couples who came to Rome for vacation tended to give one another a lot. "See," Cammie said. "After this next woman it's our turn. Then we can go get gelato in a nice air-conditioned restaurant if you want." She grinned bigger, gelato was probably her favorite food on the entire earth and Preston knew it. "Maybe that one restaurant we both love so much. What's it called?"

(She got that glint in her eye when she was truly happy and not putting on a big act for everyone. A big act Preston always saw right through.)

"What is it we're doing here exactly?" Preston asked, shaking his head. He stared at the people laughing and talking inside a shop across the street and felt envy since they were far from the sweltering heat unlike him.

"We're getting bracelets." She gave him a sideways look.

This time it was Preston's turn to roll his eyes. "Mhm. Yeah, thanks for clearing that up because I was so sure you were here to buy brownies." He pointed to the sign that he vaguely knew said something like "HANDMADE BRACELTS" in Italian. "No, but really. What is your _ulterior_ motive in being here?"

Cammie was fighting back a smile. "My ulterior motive?" She asked, amused. Her wavy blonde hair flowing in the slight breeze.

"Yes. Your ulterior motive. Cammie Morgan never does something without having an ulterior motive." When he said her name she tensed and looked around as if The Circle of Cavan was standing right behind them.

(In Cammie's world, he realized, the Circle mind as well always be standing right behind her.)

"Ah, you two speak English, yes?" The woman standing at the booth said to them before Cammie could respond. The costumers before them had left.

Cammie stepped forward and slipped into her cover. "Yes." She put on a big smile and grabbed Preston's hand, tugging him forward. She squeezed a little bit as if warning him not to screw up and make an idiot of himself. (Something he did quite often.)

The woman smiled like that fact was just so great. "Traveling, yes?" She clapped her hands together. "Oh, are you two _together_?"

Preston could feel himself starting to sweat (and that had nothing to do with the temperature). Cammie just smiled some more and leaned in to him and touched his chest. "Yes," she said. "We decided to spend our summer in Rome before going off to college in the fall."

When he felt a pinch, Preston stuttered, "Um…yeah…right…" (So maybe he was no Clark Kent.)

The woman continued with her smiling. "So how can I help you two?"

Cammie fingered a blue and black threaded bracelet that was hanging from the display. "We were hoping to get something for my friends back home," she said quietly, keeping her on the bracelet. "They always wanted to go to Rome."

"Oh, yes, yes! May I recommend these bracelets over here…"

(And Preston watched Cammie and saw the _other _smile. The act. The one where he knew she was trying to show the world that everything was fine, she'd be ok. But on the inside he knew she was screaming.)

The woman began stitching in some names to three bracelets upon Cammie's request. Preston watched as the familiar name, Macey's name, was delicately stitched into a thin, dark bracelet. He tried not to let his thoughts wander to Macey in that moment.

When the woman finished, Cammie pulled out money from the pocket of her dark shorts and paid the woman. The two of them walked away from the stand and for a split second Cammie's smile went away as she stared down at the three bracelets that she gripped in her hands.

(And she was on the verge of breaking. He knew it.)

(She missed them. She wanted to be home. Rome wasn't home for her.)

(She was a highly trained spy but Preston found himself reading her like a book.)

"So," he said at last. "How about that gelato?"

And Cammie Morgan smiled for real and Preston Winters felt himself smiling back even brighter.

...

_they're cute BFFs, no? _


End file.
